Friday, July 24, 2015

Plato,
in his “Republic”, spoke of “noble lies”, which his ideal Republic must tell to
exist. But these lies, upon inspection, prove to be crass, self-serving
rationalizations of philosopher-king rule. They are also transparent. Plato’s
philosopher-kings fool only themselves.

I see
nothing noble about such lies. I would call a lie noble only if it costs the
teller, and it’s built to be temporary, and it improves the minds of the
hearers when the deception inevitably fails. A lie is noble if it creates
philosophers.

I
therefore commend the legend of the Tooth Fairy. It’s a known falsehood told to
the young by their parents; a prank designed to collapse. Eventually,
inevitably, the child discovers that there is no Tooth Fairy; so you shouldn’t
believe just anything you hear! The Tooth Fairy takes away both baby teeth and
baby mind.

The
Tooth Fairy is a failed myth, deliberately told by unbelieving adults to their
credulous children as an initiation into skepticism. Her liberating miracle is
that she does not exist. The Tooth Fairy is to the gods as a vaccine is to
disease; a failure coopted into a warning. She is a paradoxical guardian spirit
of a doubt-based culture.

As
such the Tooth Fairy is much like Santa Claus, whose final and most generous
gift of all is sales resistance. They differ in that Santa is communal and
seasonal; he comes at a time of year; whereas the Tooth Fairy is personal and
developmental; she comes at a time of life.

I am an outsider to the
Santa cult, but I did initiate my daughter Hannah courtesy of the Tooth Fairy.
See my story “Toothseeker”, on this blog, for more details.

Thursday, July 23, 2015

The
existence of moralistic misanthropic snark proves that we are a transitional
species. If we were still truly bestial, then we would commit crimes against
humanity but not regret them; if we were already fully human, then we would not
commit those crimes and so have nothing to regret; but as is we do things we
later regret. This proves that we are the Missing Link.

Consider
this planet’s radio output. It contains signals, produced by ourselves. If an
intelligent extraterrestrial were to receive our radio output, then would the
alien call those signals signs of intelligent life?

If
our species were still truly bestial, then we would transmit only “Gilligan’s
Island” and “Keeping Up With The Kardashians”, and not regret it; if we were
already fully human, then we would transmit “I Love Lucy” and “Cosmos” instead,
and have nothing to regret; but as is, we transmit all of those signals,and regret some of them.

This
is televideo proof that we are a transitional species. Only a Missing Link
would broadcast both Gilligan and Lucy!

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

“The
runaway economy has worn down the contract that has been the bedrock of Korean
society for centuries.”

It’s about politics, of course, and like much political
speech it is full of clashing stale metaphors. Now mind you I admit that
language normally has lots of stale metaphors, which often clash; “clashing
stale metaphors” being a case in point! Nonetheless this sentence, like much
political speech, is painfully stupid if you read it rather than just scan it.

First there’s that runaway. Runaway what? A horse, a bride?
An economy? How can an economy run,
and from what? Then there’s wearing out, and a bedrock. Well at least those two
metaphors actually work together; they denote erosion. (For that much coherence
I should be grateful.) But what is being eroded? A contract? Of a society? But
societies don’t have contracts! You don’t sign up to be born!

I am a sighted person, and therefore my mind automatically
tried to create an image fitting this word salad. The best I could come up with
is this surreal tale:

“Hundreds of years ago, a Korean got some land; he carted off
the topsoil to expose the rock layer underneath; and upon that stratum he
chiseled the words ‘the party of the first part’. Alas, a stampede of rampaging
dollar signs eroded the inscription to illegibility.”

This fever-dream is political analysis? Why, oh why, are
politics discussed in language so antipoetic and stupefying?